No funeral prayer is performed for anyone killed by the unbelievers in battle; he is neither washed nor shrouded, but is buried in the clothes in which he fell. If he was carried away alive and later fell ill and died, then he is washed and the prayer is offered for him—unless his vital organs had already been fatally struck during the engagement.

The scholars differ about a battlefield martyr who was in a state of major ritual impurity (janābah). Some maintain that he alone, among all martyrs, must be washed; others say that he is not washed, in keeping with the general Sunnah regarding martyrs, for no further acts of worship are due from them.

As for the other categories of martyrs—such as those who die of plague, of abdominal illness, and all similar cases—the funeral prayer is said for them, and they are washed just like the rest of the deceased.

No prayer is offered for a newborn who does not cry out, even if signs of life had been evident. Mālik considered it disliked to pray over an infant—even if the child moved or sneezed—until he had cried aloud, treating post-natal movement as no different from movement in the womb so long as no cry had been heard.

Ibn Wahb disagreed, holding that if the child’s life is established, the funeral prayer is to be performed—and this is the position of most scholars and the majority of jurists. Nevertheless, most jurists allow such a child to receive inheritance but do not permit inheritance to be taken from his estate until he has cried aloud. If the child’s father is a Muslim, the prayer is performed for him and he is buried with the Muslims.

Some have said that if either of the child’s parents embraces Islam, the funeral prayer is performed for him; yet the first opinion is the one more widely transmitted from Mālik. No prayer is offered for a child taken captive on his own unless he reaches an understanding of Islam and accepts it.

The scholars of Medina report from Mālik that if a child is separated from both parents—or from one of them—and a Muslim buys him, he follows the religion of his purchaser. A child captured together with both parents shares their status, and the same applies if he is taken captive with one of them.

It has also been narrated from Mālik and a group of the scholars of Medina that when he is born